A Walk Through the Diagnostic/Master Exam ❮ 31Source A
“Amendments.” The United States Constitution, 1787.
The following is a section from the Fifth Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
“nor shall private property be taken for public use, without just compensation.”Note: This is known as eminent domain, which refers to the power of government to take pri-
vate property for “public use” if the owner is fairly compensated. Eminent domain has been
used to build roads, schools, and utility lines. Cities also have used it to transfer property from
unwilling sellers to developers who want to build shopping malls, offices, or other projects.
Source B
Adapted from the July 4, 2004, edition of 60 Minutes. Available at http://www.cbsnews
.com/stories/2003/09/26/60minutes/main575343.shtml.
The following is part of an interview conducted for the CBS news magazine 60 Minutes. In
it, the audience is introduced to a couple whose house had been taken by the local govern-
ment for development of condos.
Jim and Joanne Saleet are refusing to sell the home they’ve lived in for 38 years. They
live in a quiet neighborhood of single-family houses in Lakewood, Ohio, just outside
Cleveland. The City of Lakewood is trying to use eminent domain to force the Saleets
out to make way for more expensive condominiums. But the Saleets are telling the
town, “Hell no! They won’t go.”
“The bottom line is this is morally wrong, what they’re doing here. This is our
home. And we’re going to stay here. And I’m gonna fight them tooth and nail. I’ve just
begun to fight,” says Jim Saleet. “We talked about this when we were dating. I used to
point to the houses and say, ‘Joanne, one of these days, we’re going to have one of these
houses.’ And I meant it. And I worked hard.”
Jim Saleet worked in the pharmaceutical industry, paid off his house, and then
retired. Now, he and his wife plan to spend the rest of their days there, and pass their
house on to their children.
But Lakewood’s mayor, Madeleine Cain, has other plans. She wants to tear down
the Saleets’ home, plus 55 homes around it, along with four apartment buildings and
more than a dozen businesses.
Why? So that private developers can build high-priced condos, and a high-end
shopping mall, and, thus, raise Lakewood’s property tax base.
The mayor told 60 Minutes that she sought out a developer for the project because
Lakewood’s aging tax base has been shrinking, and the city simply needs more money.
“This is about Lakewood’s future. Lakewood cannot survive without a strengthened
tax base. Is it right to consider this a public good? Absolutely,” says the mayor, who admits
that it’s difficult and unfortunate that the Saleets are being asked to give up their home.
The Saleets live in an area called Scenic Park, and because it is so scenic, it’s a
prime place to build upscale condominiums. With great views, over the Rocky River,
those condos will be a cinch to sell. But the condos can’t go up unless the city can
remove the Saleets and their neighbors through eminent domain. And, to legally invoke
eminent domain, the city had to certify that this scenic park area is, really, “blighted.”
“We’re not blighted. This is an area that we absolutely love. This is a close-knit,
beautiful neighborhood. It’s what America’s all about,” says Jim Saleet. “And, Mike,
you don’t know how humiliating this is to have people tell you, ‘You live in a blighted
area,’ and how degrading this is.”
“The term ‘blighted’ is a statutory word,” says Mayor Cain. “It is, it really doesn’t have
a lot to do with whether or not your home is painted.... A statutory term is used to describe
an area. The question is whether or not that area can be used for a higher and better use.”